1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a pipe connector or pipe coupler of plastic for corrugated pipes which is adapted to be folded open in the axial direction, comprises two half members connected via a film hinge which are provided with detent means for mutual locking of the half members, and comprises at least one portion which is adapted to receive a corrugated pipe and the interior of which is formed corresponding to the outer periphery of the corrugated pipe.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such a pipe connector is for example known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,711,632.
The known pipe connector is configured as corrugated pipe connector and so constructed that the portion adapted to receive the corrugated pipe is snapped onto the latter whilst a further portion of the known pipe connector extends beyond the end of the corrugated pipe. The corrugated pipe is provided with a lateral slit which extends over the entire longitudinal extent of the pipe and which can be bent open to receive one or more electrical cables in the corrugated pipe. Such corrugated tubes or pipes are particularly useful for laying cable bundles and cable harnesses, in particular in the automobile industry, but also in other technical apparatuses in which electrical lines, hydraulic lines, pneumatic lines and the like are laid. The corrugated pipe protects these lines and makes it possible to receive both cable and conduit harnesses in preassembled state, branch possibilities being creatable at any time through the lateral slit, and also permits the subsequent laying of additional lines which are pushed through the lateral slit into the corrugated pipe.
However, the lines within the longitudinally slit corrugated pipe are arranged fundamentally freely movably and consequently the known pipe connector comprises at its free end projecting beyond the end of the corrugated pipe inwardly projecting members which in the lock state of the pipe connector hold the lines running along the inside of the corrugated pipe. A disadvantage with such corrugated pipes is that the lateral slit of the corrugated pipe usually consisting of plastic is relatively sharp-edged and therefore there is a danger of injury when opening to introduce cables. The sharp-edged lateral slit can open, in particular when the corrugated pipe is laid curved, and as a result there is a risk of a cable at least partially emerging from the corrugated pipe and fraying through at the edges of the lateral slit. In addition, the open slit of the corrugated pipe leads to condensation water, other liquids, dust and dirt being able to penetrate into the interior of the corrugated pipe and leading there to corrosion of the lines and conduits; it should be remembered here that a pipe connector surrounding the corrugated pipe is present only in the end portion of said pipe.
Furthermore, for such a corrugated pipe provided with a longitudinal slit in U.S. Pat. No. 3,711,633 a pipe connector in T-arrangement (T-piece) is proposed to enable a further corrugated pipe to branch laterally from a continuous corrugated pipe. Furthermore, in this publication a pipe connector is proposed which is attached anywhere in the course of a continuous corrugated pipe and comprises in the centre an opening so that for example an individual line or conduit can be led laterally out of the continuous pipe.
The applicants of the present application have already proposed in DE-PS 3,640,226 an improved plastic protective pipe arrangement which consists of an inner longitudinally slit plastic pipe for receiving the lines and conduits and an outer longitudinally slit plastic pipe which is configured to engage round the inner plastic pipe from the outside and cover the longitudinal slit thereof towards the outside. For this purpose, the two plastic pipes are formed as annularly corrugated pipes, the longitudinal slit in the inner plastic pipe is smaller than half the diameter thereof and the longitudinal slit in the outer plastic pipe is so dimensioned that the outer plastic pipe can be clamped from the outside onto the inner plastic pipe.
This gives a substantially better protection for lines laid in the interior of this protective pipe arrangement because an outwardly open slit is no longer present. Furthermore, in the latter publication a branch piece is proposed having a continuous corrugated longitudinally divided tube piece which matches the inner pipe and/or the outer pipe and is adapted to be fitted thereon, and a longitudinally divided branch piece, the two halves of which are formed on a respective portion of the tube piece, the two half shells thus formed being adapted to be placed round the inner and/or outer pipe and/or secured to each other.
In another technical field as is described in DE-GM 7,315,704 a threaded plug of plastic which is provided with a hollow cylindrical body with an inner thread made up of two hollow cylindrical halves. The hollow cylindrical halves are joined at an end face in a bisection plane by one or more thin webs. These steps are intended to reduce the production expenditure hitherto necessary on injection moulding plastic threaded plugs with inner thread because the removal of the core of an injection mould is possible only by turning out of the threaded plug.
In the field of metal screws, DE-OS 2,037,251 has proposed a screw having a thin-walled hollow cylindrical shank which is provided with a thread. The shank consists of two sheet metal parts joined together. For the production a sheet metal strip is punched out and by a pressing die semicylindrical parts with threads are formed at the ends of the sheet metal strip. The intermediate member between the semicylindrical parts is bent over a mandrel so that the semicylindrical parts come to bear on each other. Such steps cannot of course be carried out with plastic parts.
The laying of cables and/or lines and conduits in corrugated pipes, in particular when using a protective pipe arrangement as is described in DE-PS 3,640,226, has numerous advantages. However, it was not so far recognized that at the ends of such pipe members problems can occur where the cables or lines must usually be led through holes into the devices or systems to be supplied. Such holes are present at the splashboards in motor vehicles, in the outer housing of devices to be supplied, on switching cabinets and the like. Now, the great advantage of the aforementioned corrugated pipes resides precisely in that they can also be pushed over already laid lines, conduits, cable strands and the like. This advantage is now lost wherever a usual bushing or grommet is used at a hole for example in a splashboard.